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Oftentimes, the challenge for the established Hip-Hop act is remaining relevant amongst a peer group of hungry young rhymers in their twenties. The greater challenge, however, is proving that his once-revered stamp of authority wasn't been lost whilst he pursued a career far beyond his expectations.
Fortunately for Nasir "
Nas" Jones, his aura of an empowering, Mario Puzo-like storytelling wizard has been far from compromised, even during his most difficult period both as an artist and a man.
Facing a highly-publicised and costly divorce whilst seeing a dozen new emcees rise in the ranks, Nas, considerably at a low point, decided on naming his tenth studio album
Life Is Good -- a title many saw as a tongue-in-cheek stab at his obvious problems and worries. But to discredit an emcee who (arguably) verbally disposed of one of Hip-Hop's all-time greats, remained conscious in the face of commercialism, and created rap music's great body of work with
Illmatic would be a grave mistake.
Life Is Good finds the Street's Disciple returning to the booth with new scars and emotions to express; the question, however, is whether the end result is artistic genius or merely a tacky soap opera.
